Author Affiliations

You have no idea how hard it was for me to get these words onto this page. No, I do not have a terrible bout of writer's block. There is not a pedantic editor standing in my way. And it is not because I don't have the time to prod at my wireless keyboard. I cannot even blame the distraction of my 3‐month‐old son who has decided that the only options in life are to scream or be bounced.

Believe it or not, the fault lies entirely with my thumb—my right thumb, to be exact. This is the digit that I use to unlock my iPhone, to click on my email app, to scroll through my Twitter feed, and to text. It is my thumb that gets snared by online clickbait, leading me down the rabbit hole of Internet oblivion. It is this undisciplined and calloused thumb of mine that is responsible for my shrinking attention span, lack of productivity, and inability to sit down and write more than 140 characters.

It is this undisciplined and calloused thumb of mine that is responsible for my shrinking attention span, lack of productivity, and inability to sit down and write more than 140 characters.

The “online” university

Laugh at me all you want, but have you spent much time on a university campus lately? Check out an undergraduate classroom, visit the library, hit up the gym, peek in on a research laboratory, or stop by a faculty meeting and you will see that I am not the only one who would be well served by a thumb amputation. Sometimes it seems like all of academia has lost the ability to look someone in the eyes and listen for more than five minutes at a stretch without getting sucked back into the void of their digital …

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